Third Chance
by xNightValkyrie
Summary: Another random story, a very short and messed up story. Rika had known Kuchiki Byakuya before they went to Soul Society, but what's their relationship? ByakuyaxOC - Oneshot


A/N : Another one-shot. This story is pretty messed up, I know. This is the way it is, but hope you'll enjoy reading it =) I'll probably be modifying it if I somehow, one day, find that it doesn't make sense. xD Enjoy! Please review! Thanks!

Disclaimer : I don't own Bleach or any of its character, but Rika is mine. =)

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><p>"<em>Princess, please understand that we're doing this for our country!"<em>

_I felt warm tears running down my cheeks. I had always thought that as a princess, I would have a choice. A choice that will allow me to decide for my own destiny… but that was merely a dream. Like any other girl of my era… our fate was decided by our parents. I didn't want to admit that I couldn't spend the rest of my life with him. He was a mere general for my father, but he was my prince charming._

"_I don't want to… He's the only one I wish to marry…" I cried. I wanted no one else, but him._

"_I don't care! You are scheduled to marry the Prince tomorrow morning!" my dad's voice was harsh, cruel as I listened to it. I only cried harder, there was nothing else I could do._

_I understood that everything was for the country of Japan, but I also couldn't deny what my heart was telling me. I would've killed myself for my love, but I wouldn't put the destiny of my country to the edge for my own selfishness…_

_No… I was still being selfish on that as well. I loved this country, because it is where I met him. I hated war, because he would be involved._

I stood there, speechless. I looked at him. Everything was like a dream, an unreal dream. He was standing right there, in front of me, after so many years. Yet, I remained invisible in his eyes. I felt my body tremble with fear that I couldn't recognize.

"_Byakuya…?_" My voice was trembling. he looked at me.

I just gasped. I immediately bowed for my rudeness. Our positions weren't the same as it was before… Now, he stood higher than me in the hierarchy. He was born in one of the noble clan… I was from Rukongai. He wasn't the same one I knew 100 years ago, in the Human World.

Here, in this world, there were no more dreams or nightmares. It is here, in Soul Society, that all souls are freed… and within where nothing could be the same anymore – our names, our family, our lives, _everything_. Memories remain as memories, they do not come true a second time, you only live them once.

"… Who are you…?" Yet, his voice, his face, his arms, his legs, his _whole being_ remained the same.

I felt tears slide down my cheeks. I couldn't look away.

"_Rika, please understand your father…" his voice was always so soothing._

"_I-I rather give up my life…" I cried. He pulled me into his embrace as I let my tears wet his shirt._

"_Don't do anything foolish, Rika…" I dug my head in the crook of his neck, the pain never washing away. "You're the only one I will ever love… Even if I can't be by your side forever, my heart will always remain with you."_

"_I wish… I wasn't born a princess…" Wealth was useless for me. All I wanted couldn't be bought with money._

"_I wish I was born a prince… then I could propose to you… And fill you with my love… Until death do us apart."_

Even if our wish was realized, nothing would be the same anymore.

_Til death do us apart_… this was something he said that would be engraved deeply in my heart, until my soul vanishes into thin air.

Life had us separated, death had us separated. We were never meant to be together. We weren't who we were 100 years ago anymore. He wasn't Seijiro Byakuya anymore. I wasn't Kusaoshi Rika anymore. We were both reborn in the realm of death as two new beings, one completely renewed, the other… the same as before her death.

"I'm sorry, Kuchiki-taicho." I bowed once again.

Yet, I lived as Kusaoshi Rika. She was the me that remained hidden deep inside of Yukisho Rika, the soul that I lived within.

"I'm Yukisho Rika, new captain of the 10th Division."

"_Princess!" I dropped my cup of green tea._

"_Suiren? What is it?" a month after I've married the prince of the Southern Japan. A month since I've lost connection with my emotions. A month since I've lost my freedom. A month since I lost his whereabouts._

"_I… I received news… Seijiro-sama… he was killed in war three days ago."_

_Life led me to despair._

"Oh." He voice wasn't as soothing as it felt. It was harsh, uncaring. He definitely wasn't the same Byakuya I've met so long ago, but I wouldn't admit it. I always ran away from the truth of life. I tried to smile.

"Mind letting me call you Byakuya?" I felt like I was pleading him to let me. He looked back at me with one of these unreadable expressions, leaving me to guess. I bit my lips, biting away the lump in my throat, the sting in my eyes. We weren't the same anymore. I knew him, but he didn't know me. I could remember him, but I didn't exist in his memory.

**One year later**

I lay quietly on the ground, the feelings of my limbs slowly dissipating in thin air. I stared at the sky, memories washing through my brain. Memories that I would lock away to protect. Then darkness swept my view away…

"_Byakuya!" I ran into his house, to his room. I could always find him there, if not in his office in the 6__th__ Division._

_As I thought, he was kneeing in front of Hisana-sama's picture once again. I thought that I had gotten over the fact that I wasn't in his memory anymore, but everytime I saw him look at her picture with so much love, I just felt jealousy taking over, a kind of jealousy I've only learned recently._

"_Byakuya! What are you doing? Let's go out! The sakura trees are in their full bloom now!" I tried pulling him out, but he didn't bother to move. I sighed. I walked to Hisana's picture and flipped it down. He looked at me, anger boiling in his eyes._

"_What do you think you're doing?" I felt my heart skip as he yelled on me for the first time, but also, pain came mixing my feelings. It was hard seeing him weep for other woman, even if he doesn't remember about me._

"_I'm tired of seeing you like this! It's annoying me! If you love her, then do what you think she would like to see you doing!" I turned around and ran out. I was becoming crazy around him. I knew I shouldn't have done such things, I knew he wouldn't forgive me._

Jealousy blinded me from everything. From the day that I had revealed my heart to him, everything turned upside down.

_I love you_…

Those three words were nothing more than a curse. A taboo. Yet, I would wait, wait until the day my love would be returned, even if it wouldn't be the same as it was before.

"_I'm sorry!" I hugged him close. He did nothing but looked at me, his gaze staring into my blue orbs. His gaze melt me, nothing more could be compared to his eyes. I held him close, listening to his heartbeat._

He never showed me any love, but I knew he cared, because his eyes told me the same thing they did 100 years ago…

**Kuchiki Byakuya's POV**

Ignoring the countless of shinigamis around, I flash stepped to her limp form, taking her in my arms, feeling her cold body against mine. Her eyes were empty, her breath was short and uneven, and blood was dried from her lips. I held her tightly against myself, holding back my tears, holding back my pain.

I've held everything back, hoping to keep us both far from our memories, far from our past, but I was foolish. I was running away from everything. If I had not suicide myself in the middle of war, I would not have being reborn with no memories of her. If I had not forgotten about her, I would not have pushed myself away from her. Nothing would have led to this if I wasn't such a fool in my earlier life.

Meeting her once again changed my life. My memory haunted me once again as much as the love I had for her before everything happened. Hisana was my one and only before she reappeared… but she turned everything upside down with her appearance in my life.

"Byaku… ya… Is that… you…?" her voice was barely audible. It pained me to no end. I couldn't have imagined what she had gone through after hearing about my death, 100 years ago. "I can't… see…" I held her hand tightly in mine, words losing their use at the tip of my lips. "Do you… remember…?" I had forgotten once. I couldn't allow myself to forget a second time. If only I had a third chance to be with her, I would do anything to stay by her side.

"Everything we've gone through… I remember them… very well." I kissed her forehead, her nose, and her bloody lips.

"I'm… glad…" I looked at the smile she tried to pull. "I wish… we had a… third chance…" I felt her hand pull my palm open as I looked at her, exactly like she did 100 years ago, before leaving for another man…

"_Byakuya… Give me your hand…" she smiled sadly. I willingly gave her my hand. I looked at her as she put a finger over my right palm._

_She quietly wrote down a few words on my palm. I smiled realizing what she wrote. I kissed her forehead._

"_I love you too."_

But this time… the words were different. I looked at her as tears came out as she finished her last word.

_Sayonara_.

I felt her body fall limp as I held her close to me.

**Twenty years later**

"We came to get Rukia back to Soul Society." Renji yelled as a black haired girl appeared beside Ichigo's limp form, standing in front of him, arms stretched out protectively.

"Who are you to yell on my brother?" Kuchiki Byakuya looked at the girl, stunned. She barely looked at him, her bright blue eyes flashing him her authority.

"How can you-" Renji looked fiercely at the girl in front of him.

"Rika…?" Rika looked back at the man that has addressed her by her name.

"Who are you…?"


End file.
